AutoHotkey Community

I want to append a string containing newline chars (`n) to an AHK GUI Edit control. I want each of those chars to trigger a new line.

If I write a string using this code


newline chars show up as square boxes. No new lines. Blechhh.

If I write a string using this code


newline chars cause new lines, as I'd like.

Okay, I'm thinking, maybe we need carriage-return newline pairs. Reading the docs for GuiControl, it seems to confirm my thinking, as it mentions how newlines are turned into carriagereturn newline pairs for writing to an Edit control. However, if I tweak my string so as to do the same transformation. using code like this:


... and then write that transformed string using Control EditPaste, the problem of the little boxes persists.

Anyone got a fix for this ? I like using Control EditPaste because of its appendation properties.

== noob stan

It works for me.

When working with AHK GUI's Inside your own code.. You really should not use 'Control'

I was about to say the same, but GuiControl does not have an EditPaste subcommand. I'm about to put it on the Wish List.

Here's a workaround:

_________________

Try Quick Search for Autohotkey or see the tutorial for newbies.

That would solve this particular issue quite nicely !

Yep, that works for me too.

Hmmm .... must be something else in my code ... hmmm ....

Aha !!! Had to cleanup/debug my string manipulation functions ....

Now things are working just fine.

Thanks jaco0646 and everyone else who's assisted on this'un ....

== noob stan

Could you or someone else elaborate on this ? e.g., why this really should not be done ??

thx

== noob stan

Control is a generic command for working with third-party GUIs. GuiControl is designed specifically for AutoHotkey GUIs (and in fact only for AutoHotkey GUIs). For example, GuiControl works with your controls’ associated output variables, rather than just the ClassNN or text. This makes it more reliable. Using GuiControl, you also don't have to worry about WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText. Of course, GuiControl also offers many more options for working with your individual controls; EditPaste just isn’t one of them.

I've always appended text this way; but the annoying thing is that this moves the cursor to the beginning of the control, so EditPaste has it beat in that respect too.

Yes, that was my first approach to appending. But the cursor going to the beginning killed it for me for my particular current need, a scroll-barred logging pane that fills with data, where you'd like to be looking at the most recent info, which is at the end. Moving the cursor down after using the GuiControl technique caused flicker, which was particularly bad when the logging window was filling with lots of little bits of text quickly.

That's a common problem, both for logging and for chat windows. You might find this example interesting: Multi Line Edit control woes FIXED!

Oh I've had fun today exploring this.

One path ate up a bunch of time, ultimately wasn't optimal, but taught me a lot. I implemented a general stack functionality. Then, if I append a string to my read-only Edit control log, I can push its length onto a stack of such string appendation lengths. If I want to remove the last string[s] written to the log, I can pull their length[s] off the stack, and use that number to build up a string (shift down plus my string[s] length's worth of Left's plus shift up) that lets me select that/those last strings, and then use EditPaste to replace them. Unfortunately, if the AHK window is topmost, you get to see a blue selection wipe occur before the new text appears. Blech.

Yep, I'd like GuiControl to have EditPaste functionality.

I'd also like Edit controls to have -redraw functionality. So one could do things while redraw was off, then turn it on again.

I'd like to quickly turn ReadOnly-ness on and off for Edit controls. So I could send string of text-erasing Backspace keystrokes to my logging pane during a momentary not-ReadOnly period.

Such a greedy needy noob .....

Thx again everyone for the brainstorming and idea-sharing ...

-- stan